Friday, 30 October 2009

Roll Deep's Street Anthems is out now, a compilation of various tracks and styles from their weighty history. The opening Eskimo Vocal Mix stands out; an unreleased track that slowly sunk and plopped on grime's bed, its memories were slyly washed away as other tunes made waves.

Tuesday, 27 October 2009

After whispers of his debut mixtape From 'There to Here' - only for a subsequent hush - Manga is back making noise with his solo project, 'The Adventures Of...'

With production from the likes of Wiley, Bless Beats and Danny Weed, Manga skippedy-skips over the beats on offer and, with clips from his pirate radio archive, The Adventures Of... gives the promo format fresh vitality.

I had to make sure Manga releasing something wasn't a hoax, so I had a few quick words with the man himself to dun any doubts.

So why the title The Adventures Of?

Well that title kinda just sprung to mind. I go a lot of places, I'm not the type of person who just stays in my area and sits down - I've done a lot of different things in my time in the scene that people don't know about, so they're like my little adventures. I thought it's time to share them.

The promo seems full and well-rounded; the radio clips give a sense of history and complement the newer styles of production here - it's different from any promo I've heard. Did you consciously look at what was out there before you released yours?

No. I've never looked at no-one else's promo - I had a clear idea of how I wanted mine to sound. The first idea for the promo was just to have my features and radio clips, simply because I've done a lot of Roll Deep work that people haven't heard. I've also been doing a lot of radio since I joined as well. But a lot of the younger listeners never knew any of that, so I wanted to show that I have been here for a while but at the same time I'm still fresh and relevant. So I done a few tracks and freestyles into the mix and now we have "The Adventures Of.."

The mixtape 'From There to Here' has been in the pipeline for a while - why Adventures Of now? Did you decide to just put something out there, or is the promo part of a plan that will incorporate the mixtape?

Yeah I had to put something out - everyone kept moaning at me! It got to the point where everyone in studio, on bookings and road kept asking where's the CD! I've started From There To Here about four times, but I've had a lot of trouble doing it. Two years ago I nearly finished it, but then the studio got closed down (so I lost all the stuff). I've even been recording my CD and the studio got robbed while I was in it, so I've had a bit of bad luck! Also Roll Deep has its own studio, but as you know there's a lot of us trying to do work at the same time and a lot of the time work gets merged or not finished. So I done the promo so there is something out in the world with my name on it before my CD's out.

Is the general sound of the promo similar to what the listeners can expect from the mixtape? When's From There to Here landing?

My first release won't sound like the promo. Not the fact it's mainly grime, just that I'm going to put a lot more thought into every track and the whole sound of the CD. The title "From There to Here" itself means a lot - it represents my journey from the first time I starting spitting to now (and everything in between), so I need to make sure it gives off the message I want it to. The way you make people feel with your music is way more important than what you say. I see my first release as my first words, so I need to make sure I get my points across properly from early. I'm in the studio most days now, so I'm getting more into a working motion. I'm not sure when it's gonna be out, but I'm working on it now.

While the promo is your time, what's the situation with Roll Deep? 'Street Anthems' has just landed but members seem to be on individual projects - will new Roll Deep material be heard any time soon?

Yeah Street Anthems is out now, 'Aim High: The Revolution' and 'Original Dan' are out at the end of the month and 'Wake Up' EP is out now. I think everyone's just found their stride now - it kinda got lost for a bit. We're working on a new album as well, and I think this one will be a lot better because everyone has become their artist. We're more of a unit of indviduals now, which I think is why people were attracted to Roll Deep in the first place.